Elon Musk and his companies have been in the news a lot lately, and for good reason. Musk is constantly pushing the technology envelope, from space exploration to electric vehicles to solar technology. Since Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity, there have been many changes to what used to be the leading solar installer in the U.S. In this article, we’ll cover the history of the SolarCity/Tesla merger.
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Solar news: July 10th, 2020
In this week’s Solar News Roundup, Sunrun announces plans to acquire leading competitor Vivint Solar, and Oregon’s largest utility company, Portland General Electric, joins the growing number of utility companies investing in virtual power plants.
Continue readingSolar news: April 3rd, 2020
In this week’s Solar News Roundup, we take a look at how a few solar companies are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue readingCharging your Tesla: how many solar panels does it take and how much does it cost?
Following the news of Tesla’s acquisition of U.S. solar installer giant SolarCity, the world has been keeping a close eye on Elon Musk and his two prosperous clean energy ventures. Tesla and SolarCity, electric cars and solar panels – a two-front war waged against grid reliance and energy dependence. In 2019, Musk-owned companies are both expanding and constricting as two of the tech entrepreneur’s five companies are joining forces around one common goal: eliminating your carbon footprint.
Continue readingTesla Powerwall 2: an upgraded battery for your home
Tesla brought solar batteries to the forefront of home energy technology with the launch of the Powerwall in 2015. A year later, Elon Musk announced the new and improved Tesla Powerwall 2, an industry-leading product that takes solar-plus-storage to the next level. The Powerwall 2 offers a few much-needed improvements over the original Powerwall product, including a larger storage capacity, a lower per-kilowatt hour cost, and a built-in inverter.
Continue readingComparing lithium-ion battery chemistries
Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular products used for solar electricity storage today. Within the umbrella category of lithium-ion batteries, there are several specific chemistries that battery manufacturers employ in their products. These chemistries each have their own advantages and disadvantages, as well as ideal use cases.
Continue readingSolar news: November 1st, 2019
In this week’s Solar News Roundup, Tesla announces its newest version of the famed Solar Roof, and corporate renewable procurements reach a new record in 2019.
Continue readingTesla Q3 2019 earnings call: what you need to know
As a publicly-traded company, Tesla presents quarterly reports to shareholders, analysts, and the media about the state of the company. While most coverage of these quarterly earnings calls focuses on the company’s electric vehicle business or their financial standing, we want to provide an analysis of what their reports reveal about Tesla’s solar and storage business. With that in mind, here’s what you need to know from Tesla’s Q3 2019 earnings call:
Continue readingSolar news: August 23rd, 2019
In this week’s Solar News Roundup, Tesla launches a new solar rental model, and the energy storage market for California’s major utilities continues at impressive deployment rates, especially in SDG&E territory.
Continue readingU.S. solar panel manufacturers: a list of American-made solar panels
On January 22, 2018, the Trump Administration announced a 30 percent tariff on solar panels and cells imported into the United States. This announcement raised a lot of questions for solar customers on the EnergySage Solar Marketplace. One of the most popular questions: where can I find solar panels that are made in America?
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